484 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



and amounts, for what incurred, money spent for any 

 discharge of his duties, and to whom the same was 

 paid, and for what services and considerations such 

 indebtedness was incurred, and accompany said report 

 with the affidavits given him under and in pursuance 

 of Section 3 of this act, and make full and complete 

 report of all he did, and results of his treatment of any 

 apiary. 



Sec. 12.— After the county inspector of bees in any 

 county shall make report, as provided in the preced- 

 ing section, said county commi.'-sioner shall allow and 

 pay to said county inspector of bees two dollars for a 

 full day, and one dollar for each half day, necessarily 

 and actually employed in the discharge of his duties 

 under this act. together with his necessary and actual 

 expenses while so employed, to be audited, allowed, 

 and paid by the county officers. 



Sec. 13.— This act shall take effect and te in force 

 from and after its passage. 



It will be seen that this is based on the 

 county plan, and is very similar to the law 

 that has given such good results in Colora- 

 do and California. While, perhaps, a law 

 providing for an efficient general State in- 

 spector, to have jurisdiction over the whole 

 State, would be better, it would have been 

 simply impossible to have gotten such a 

 measure through our legislature. If our 

 present law is not sufficienly effective it 

 may be used as a stepping-stone to some- 

 thing better later on. But I am inclined to 

 think it will do very well for the time be- 

 ing, and possibly for all time. I would 

 suggest to bee-keepers of other States that 

 they secure first a county law, as it would 

 probably be easy to get such a measure 

 through any legislature. 



WEDDING BELLS. 



Elsewhere we have mentioned the mar- 

 riage of Mr. Francis Danzenbaker, the bee- 

 hive inventor, to Mrs. Wm. Roden, of this 

 place. We also have the pleasure of an- 

 nouncing the marriage of the veteran queen- 

 brer der, Mr. Henry Alley, to Mrs. Margar- 

 et McLean Ball, on the 5th. Gleanings 

 certainly wishes both couples great joy and 

 many years of happiness to come. Both of 

 the grooms are well known throughout the 

 whole bee-keeping world. Mrs. Danzen- 

 baker had charge of our department where 

 we make fences for plain sections, includ- 

 ing those for the Danzenbaker hive, so that 

 she was not wholly out of touch with bees 

 or with the hive invented by her husband. 



SECURING COMBS OF HONEY FOR NEXT SEA- 

 SON. 



" Doolittle, I came over to ask you a ques- 

 tion." 



" All right, Snyder. Fire it out." 

 "For purposes of feeding bees, is not a 

 comb full of honey as good as any thing? " 



" That is mj' candid opinion." 

 " But would it be for stimulating the bees 

 to brood- rearing in the spring? " 

 " I think so, if rightly managed." 

 " What would be right management? " 

 " There are two ways of right manage- 

 ment with such combs. In early spring 

 they should be placed close up to the clus- 

 ter of bees ; or, if the colony is strong, just 

 over behind a division-board, so that the 

 bees in carrying the honey would have to 

 go around this board. Any way that com- 

 pels the bees to move honey from one place 

 to another has a tendency to stimulate 

 brood- rearing. But, of course, there is 

 nothing that stimulates brood-rearing so 

 much as the moving of nectar or honey from 

 the flowers of the field into the hive where 

 it is stored in the cells immediately sur- 

 rounding the brood. And the carrying of 

 honey from a comb around a division-board, 

 or of the same from a feeder, comes next ; 

 and the taking it from a comb just outside 

 the cluster, last. But if any colony is weak, 

 or the weather is still cold in early spring, 

 it would not answer to put the comb be- 

 yond a division- board, on account of rob- 

 bing with the first, and because it would 

 do no good with the latter. Judgment must 

 be used in all of these things." 



" What of the second way? " 



" That is to be used a little later in the 

 season, after the colonies become a little 

 stronger and the weather more settled and 

 warm. When such a state of affairs comes 

 about, and there is no honey coming in 

 from the fields, then partially break the 

 sealing to the honey by passing a knife 

 flatwise over the face to the comb, when it 

 is to be set right down in the center of the 

 brood-nest." 



" Why do you do this? " 



" On the same principle as before." 



" How is that? " 



" Before, we were making the bees carry 

 the honey from the fields, the comb outside 

 the division-board, or from the oulside of 

 the cluster, to the cells immediately sur- 

 rounding the brood; and this carrying was 

 the means of their thinking they were in a 

 properous condition, just the same as a 

 man thinks he is prospering when he is 

 moving treasure into his home and about 

 his fireside. And placing this frame of 

 honey with broken cappings in the center 

 of the brood-nest, right between combs of 

 brood, not only gives the bees the idea that 

 they have struck a bonanza, but sets them 

 to removing this honey, all warmed up and 

 made thin similar to the nectar from the 

 fields, removing the same from the inside 

 of the cluster to the cells around the brood 

 on the outside of the same; and in this stir 

 thus caused, the queen is incited to greater 

 activity, and finds plenty of unoccupied 

 cells right in the warmest part of the hive. 

 Of all the ways of coaxing an advance in 

 brood-rearing, I know of nothing that is so 

 much of a success as this, except the bees 

 bringing in nectar from the opening flow- 

 ers." 



